THE THIRD SIGN: HEALING THE SICK

5 After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.z 2 By the Sheep Gateaa in Jerusalem there is a pool, called BethesdaI in Aramaic, which has five colonnades. 3 Within these lay a large number of the disabled—blind, lame, and paralyzed.*

5 One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time,ab he said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

7 “Sir,”ac the disabled man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”

8 “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.” 9 Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

Now that day was the Sabbath,ad 10 and so the Jewsae said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath.af The law prohibits you from picking up your mat.”

11 He replied, “The man who made me wellag told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

12 “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked. 13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was,ah because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.K

14 After this, Jesus found him in the templeai and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” 15 The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.a 16 Therefore, the Jews began persecutingb JesusA because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.c